


1485

by LadySeishou



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Community: 31_days, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-03
Updated: 2005-10-03
Packaged: 2017-11-14 14:24:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/516158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySeishou/pseuds/LadySeishou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The wheel of life turns and the dream continues... an alternate universe or a tale of reincarnation, Touya Akira as a Noh actor of some fame and Shindou, a stage assistant meet one night after a performance...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1485

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the LiveJournal 31 Days community.   
> AU Theme: October 3 / When angels speak of love  
> Characters: Touya Akira (Tsure, companion actor) / Shindou Hikaru (Koken, stage assistant)  
> Rating: PG-13
> 
> Author’s note: 
> 
> The source material for the Noh play “Hagoromo” is an ancient Chinese legend.   
> The author of the play is not known, only that it was written sometime during the 15th century.
> 
>  
> 
> Author’s preface:
> 
> Noh is a form of classical Japanese theatre, performed since the 14th century. It evolved from various popular and aristocratic art forms well known during the Heian period. Noh, itself would later form the foundation for other dramatic presentations such as Kabuki.
> 
> The Shitekata are the most common acting roles in the Noh play. They are (1) Shite, the primary actor, (2) Tsure, the Shite’s companion, (3) the Jiutai or chorus of 6 to 8 actors and (4) the Koken, two to three actors who act as stage assistants.
> 
> Readers familiar with the manga/anime series “Ayashi no Ceres” will already know the story of “Hagoromo” (the Feather-Mantle). Briefly, the Noh play is about an angel of heaven (Tennin) who leaves her feather cloak hanging on a bough of a tree where it is found by a fisherman (Hakuryo). Tennin demands the cloak’s return but the fisherman first argues with the angel but then offers to give back the Hagoromo if the Tennin will teach him the God-dance…

1485

 

Hikaru finally found Touya standing on the deserted stage. The others must have already gone with the musicians to the teahouse then. He had heard the daimyo had been very pleased with the day’s performance and Hikaru knew his patronage was important for the master’s house. The daimyo’s pleasure would be cause for play and drinking.

He was about to call out to his friend, to tell him, but there was something in the actor’s quiet regard of the pine tree painted on the back of the stage that stilled his tongue.

Touya still wore the robes and cloak of the angel but had set aside the mask. He had left it on the stage’s narrow bridge and Hikaru came closer to pick it up.

“Sometimes I wish that I could truly climb the branches of this tree,” Touya said. 

Hikaru had been noticed after all.

“There are many fine trees around here to climb Touya if that’s your pleasure,” Hikaru answered pragmatically. “That one is only paint on paper.”

Touya turned to smile sweetly at him and Hikaru fell in love with him anew. “But it is this one they say, the deities may climb to heaven.” He gestured to the painting with a grand sweep of his dark gossamer sleeve, embroidered with golden butterflies.

Hikaru walked onto the stage, crossing the bridge. “But if you were to escape to heaven, Tennin, who would teach us the God-dance?” he answered, laughing. As he drew close though, his smile fell into a frown as he caught sight of the small bruises on Touya’s face, no longer hidden by the Tennin’s mask. “Touya… who hurt you?”

Touya suddenly turned away, his robes swirling about his lithe body. 

“That cloak belongs to someone on this side. What are you proposing to do with it?”

He spoke as the angel about the mask that Hikaru held in his hands.

“Touya…” Hikaru began.

Touya stomped his foot hard on the wood floor of the stage. Hikaru worked still as a koken, an assistant on the stage but he easily knew the play’s lines and responded, 

“This? This is a cloak I found here. I am taking it home.” 

He shook the mask as if he were displaying heaven’s own wondrous cloak.

The Tennin then demanded,

“That is a feather-mantle not fit for a mortal to bear.   
Not easily wrested from the sky-traversing spirit,   
not easily taken or given.   
I ask you to leave it where you found it.”

Hikaru speaking as the fisherman answered in turn, 

“How! Is the owner of this cloak a Tennin?   
So be it. In this downcast age I should keep it,   
a rare thing and make it a treasure in the country,   
a thing respected.” 

Hikaru carefully set the mask down before reaching out to pull Touya into his arms. “Then I should not return it.”

Touya turned his naked face away from Hikaru’s serious gaze and spoke quietly,

“Pitiful. There is no flying   
without the cloak of feathers,  
No return through the ether.   
I pray you return me the mantle.”

Hikaru leaned close to speak into Touya’s ear. 

“And this world would be a sorry place for such as you to dwell in?” 

He felt Touya’s body shaking, even through the layers of silk robes he wore. Touya tried to pull away but Hikaru held him fast.

“I am caught. I struggle. How shall I…” 

Touya suddenly relented, giving up his attempts to pull away from Hikaru. 

“I look up into the flat of heaven, peering.   
The cloud-road is all hidden and uncertain.   
We are lost in the rising mist.   
I have lost knowledge of the road.” 

He pressed his forehead to Hikaru’s shoulder, speaking even softer. 

“Strange. A strange sorrow.”

Hikaru lifted his hand to touch the fine texture of Touya’s hair, stroking softly. 

“What do you say?   
Now that I can see you   
in your sorrow,   
angel of heaven,   
I bend and would return you…

...your smile."

And Hikaru gentlyly pushed Touya away far enough so that he could kiss that sad, sad face.

“Shindou-san. No. We can not.” Touya pulled away from Hikaru’s embrace and walked the length of the stage. “We can not.”

Shindou bent down to retrieve the angel’s mask. 

“Give payment with the dance of the Tennin and I will return you your mantle.” 

He held the mask out towards the other.

Touya only shook his head, his hair hiding his eyes as he stared down out at the emptiness of the theatre. “I do wait to give payment this night Fisherman. Just not to you.”

Hikaru felt a sudden rush of anger, a strong need to protect Touya, the feeling undeniable. “What do you mean Touya? Do you speak of Lord Ogata?” He saw Touya shake his head but he knew already. “Why do you lie to me? I know that he is the one that hurts you Touya. Why do you…? And for what? Those few gifts he sends?” 

Hikaru knew about the goban, delivered one day after one of Touya’s late night returns. He had almost been unable to walk the stage that day. But Touya seemed pleased by the gift. He had shown it to Hikaru eagerly enough, offering to teach Hikaru the game.

But nothing was worth the bruises that he had seen on Touya’s face, the others he knew hidden beneath the layers of beautiful silk.

“Lord Ogata is a generous benefactor of our family Shindou-san. Without his patronage…” Touya began tiredly, words said many times over.

But Hikaru would have none of it now. “Lord Ogata has no honor! To expect you to… He has no honor! We would do just fine without his kind of help!” Hikaru argued hotly. “Just tonight, I’ve heard that Lord Zama…”

“Is the honored Lord I am loaned to tonight!” Touya yelled back, angry too. “Do you understand now Fisherman? No, not even Fisherman. You are koken! And you need to remember your place and who it is you speak to!”

Hikaru was very angry now and knew it would be better if he held his tongue. But he didn't always do the smart thing. 

“Yes, I am greatly honored to be in the presence of Lord Ogata’s whore.” 

Touya slapped him as befitted his station, with the back of his hand. And as slim as Touya looked, he was strong. Hikaru rubbed his jaw trying to ease the sting and watched as Touya drew a calming breath and donned the mask of the Tennin.

“You shall have what pleasure you will   
and I will leave a dance here,   
a joy to be new among men   
and to be memorial dancing.” 

The Tennin stepped back toward the painted pine tree and readied tarnished wings. 

“Learn then this dance that can   
turn the palace of the moon.   
For the sorrows of the world   
I will leave this new dancing with you   
for sorrowful people.”

Hikaru watched as Touya performed the ritual dance, the God’s dance, his steps sure and well practiced and as perfect as man may be imitating the gods. Hikaru was moved to tears watching the Tennin’s final earthbound steps before the angel’s departure, this time though not upon a heaven-sent robe of mist but instead like an ordinary man crossing the low bridge…

Yet even in this there was still something to be witnessed of the godlike nobility of man, even in this, Touya’s acceptance of this shameful burden.

“Touya!” he called desperately.

The actor paused but did not turn.

Hikaru spoke the Tennin’s last line, one that Touya had not.

“The plumage of heaven   
drops neither feather nor flame   
to its own diminution.”

Touya nodded before leaving the stage.

 

\- owari -

 

The text of the play is taken from the Ezra Pound 1916 translation.


End file.
